BASS Reporter’s Notebook: BASSCast Videos from 2009 Bassmaster Classic Rack up Thousands of Hits at Bassmaster.com
Category: press release
Mar 3rd, 2009 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Mar 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 AM
BASS Reporter’s Notebook: BASSCast Videos from 2009 Bassmaster Classic Rack up Thousands of Hits at Bassmaster.com
One of the ways the breaking news of the 2009 Bassmaster Classic competition was brought to fans worldwide was via BASSCast. The videos of on-the-water action pulled more than 58,000 hits at Bassmaster.com during the Feb. 20-22 competition.
The final day of the Red River competition out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La., saw the heaviest traffic for BASSCast videos. The count Feb. 22 was 41,574 page views; 19,475 of them classified as “unique views,” or one-time views by one person.
The first two days’ videos attracted a total of 16,871 viewers; 10,219 of those were unique.
BASSCast and its much-viewed videos are an innovative creation from ESPN Technology Product Development that uses cameras mounted near the stern of two competitors’ boats each of the three days of Classic competition. The cameras recorded every cast aboard several Classic competitors’ boats.
Skeet Reese, the Auburn, Calif., Bassmaster Elite Series pro who won the 2009 Classic crown and the accompanying $500,000 first-place prize, was one of the anglers who had a camera trained on his every move the final day. Elite pro Jami Fralick of Martin, S.D., the Day Two leader who finished in eighth place, was the other.
Throughout the Classic, fans also were able to follow Elite pros Boyd Duckett of Demopolis, Ala., the 2007 Classic champ who led the 2009 event on Day One; Alton Jones, the 2008 Classic champion from Waco, Texas; and Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., the 2008 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year and two-time Classic champ.
The videos are still available for viewing on Bassmaster.com by clicking here or going to http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/bassCast/index.
Other live and almost-live online coverage of this year’s Classic included frequently updated unofficial standings powered by BASSTrakk; three live cams; live media conferences accessible to BASS Insider members; live, streaming video on ESPN360.com; and real-time leaderboards of each day’s weigh-in on Bassmaster.com.
BAIN-MOORE, ‘HER STORY’: Kim Bain-Moore of Alabaster, Ala. – who as a 2009 Bassmaster Classic qualifier became the first woman to compete in the prestigious event – will be one of the female athletes featured by ESPN in its March programming in observance of national Women’s History Month.
The piece on Bain-Moore, the 2008 Toyota Tundra Women’s Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year, will be part of a series of vignettes that starts March 8 and will air on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU and ESPN Classic during studio shows as well as during basketball programming, including the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Women’s History Month will be highlighted on many of ESPN’s media platforms. They include ESPN.com and ESPN360.com; ESPN The Magazine; SportsCenter on ESPN Deportes, as well as several international networks in Latin America. ESPN Classic will feature an 11-hour marathon about famous women athletes on Saturday, March 14, at 10 a.m. ET.
ESPN’s Women’s History Month programming will wrap with a one-hour special, Her Story. It will air Friday, March 27, at 8 p.m. ET. Hosted by SportsCenter’s Hannah Storm, Her Story will focus on up-and-coming female athletes and the issues they face.
SHREVEPORT 2K: The Shreveport Times ran more than 2,000 column inches of copy about the 2009 Bassmaster Classic on the Red River out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La.
The newspaper’s outdoor editor, Jimmy Watson, penned the majority of the extensive coverage, which he said began months ago and was pushed into high gear Feb. 14. The heavy coverage continued through the Times’ Feb. 23 edition.
“It was an effort by all of us (at the Times), together, including some photographers,” Watson said of the 2,000-inch benchmark for one sporting event. Watson said several Times editors and reporters provided the coverage throughout the three days of the tournament.
While Watson wrote several reports on the competition’s daily results, many of his pieces were on ancillary topics, such as the economic impact on the area and how history was made in Shreveport-Bossier City when Alabama’s Kim Bain-Moore became the first woman to compete in a Classic.
Pressed to pick his favorite story from those he wrote, Watson named one that touched him.
“If I had to pick one, it would be one I did before the Classic, the one on Byron Velvick and Boyd Duckett taking a young man fishing on the river,” Watson said.
The piece was about a boy from South Carolina whose mother had written Velvick to ask only for a hat to give to her son on his 16th birthday. Instead of just a hat, Velvick extended an invitation to the boy to join the Elite pro during practice on the Red River. Duckett followed suit.
BASS will return to the Shreveport-Bossier City area Oct. 16-18 with the Academy Sports + Outdoors Women’s Bassmaster Tour Championship. Like the Classic, the WBT grand finale will be on the Red River.
CUSTOM RODS FOR THREE ELITES: “In fishing, confidence is everything.” The statement sums up the appeal of Dobyns Rods for Bassmaster Elite Series pros Dave Wolak of Wake Forest, N.C.; Grant Goldbeck of Gaithersburg, Md.; and Clark Reehm of Russellville, Ark.; each of whom has a sponsorship deal with Dobyns Rods. The California-based company designs 53 types of rods, each for a particular application, such as drop-shotting, topwater, deep cranking or flipping.
“My whole life I’ve had an interest in custom rods and found myself buying rods from 10, 12 different companies,” Goldbeck said. “The problem was, the rods would all have completely different feels. Switching out, each new rod felt awkward in my hand at first and messed with my confidence. Now, with Dobyns, I finally found a company with a rod for every technique out there, and then some.”
Dobyns Rods are customized down to the finest detail, helping the individual angler create the exact stick to suit a preferred style of fishing. Guides on the rods are light and low-profile and have multiple anchor points, allowing for increased sensitivity in applications such as fishing offshore structure with a football jig, Goldbeck’s favorite method.
“You want to try to eliminate any doubt in your mind when you’re out there on the water – in fishing, confidence is everything,” Goldbeck said. “I’m generally fishing deeper water and the bites are a lot lighter. So any advantage against the fish is crucial.”
The Dobyns Rods that Goldbeck is excited to use during the 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series season include an 8-foot flip/punch rod for lakes such as Amistad and Champlain, both frequent Elite Series stops, an 8-foot swimbait rod from the Mike Long Signature Swimbait Rods series with an 18-inch handle for leverage to throw heavy bait and set the hook, and a similar rod with a 13-inch handle for throwing topwater baits so it doesn’t constantly nudge the angler in the rib cage. All are Champion Series rods. The Champion Xtreme Series includes another favorite, a 7-foot, 8-inch heavy, fast-action jig rod, which Goldbeck calls the ultimate offshore football jig rod.
TWO NEW DEALS FOR RUSS LANE: Bassmaster Elite Series pro Russ Lane of Prattville, Ala., plans to debut his new boat wrap for retailer Battery Outfitters at the season-opening Battle on the Border, March 12-15 on Lake Amistad out of Del Rio, Texas.
Battery Outfitters is a new sponsor for Lane. The retailer operates four stores – three in Missouri, one in Arkansas – as well as nine truck routes that cover four states.
“Their plans are to expand nationwide through Internet sales, and that’s my main focus in working with them,” said Lane, who incorporated a large Battery Outfitters logo into his deep-blue wrap design. It also sports the logos of two of the company’s brands: Empire and Trojan.
The company’s Web site, http://www.batteryoutfitters.com, displays its full line, which includes just about any type of battery that can be imagined for a range applications.
Lane also just signed a one-year deal with Houston-based rod maker American Rodsmiths.
“It’s great to get both those deals this year,” he said.
‘FIRST TAKE’ ON SKEET: “Hey, hey, hey … this isn’t an easy sport here.” – 2009 Bassmaster Classic champion Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif., on Feb. 23, the day after he achieved his first Bassmaster Classic victory, responding to a teasing “What took you so long?” question posed by interviewer Dana Jacobson on ESPN’s “First Take”
About BASS
For more than 40 years, BASS has served as the authority on bass fishing. With its considerable multi-media platforms and expansive tournament trail, BASS is guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans. Through its industry-leading publications Bassmaster Magazine, BASS Times and Fishing Tackle Retailer and comprehensive Web properties in ESPN360.com, ESPN’s sports broadband network, Bassmaster.com, BASSInsider.com and ESPNOutdoors.com, the organization is committed to delivering content true to the lifestyle. Additionally, television programming on ESPN2 continues to provide relevant content – from tips and techniques to in-depth tournament coverage – to passionate audiences.
The organization oversees the prestigious Bassmaster tournament trail, which includes the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bassmaster Opens, Women’s Bassmaster Tour and the Bassmaster Classic, the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing. Through its grassroots network, the BASS Federation Nation, BASS sanctions more than 20,000 events annually.
BASS also offers an array of services to its more than 500,000 members while spearheading progressive, positive change on issues related to conservation and water access. The organization is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.